Two ways to hand a visitor a badge at reception. Here is how they differ in cost, evacuation lists and impression — and when the printer is still the right call.
A visitor management system is the software that records who is in the building. The badge is what the visitor wears. The question is what the badge should be.
A thermal printer at the desk prints a sticky label with the visitor's name. The label goes on the jacket and in the bin when the visit ends. The printer needs a roll of labels, a PC or tablet with a driver, and someone to change the roll when it runs out.
A badge with the same kind of display as an e-reader. The docking station writes the visitor's name on it at check-in and rewrites it for the next visitor when it is returned. The badge has no battery — e-paper holds its image without power — so it is never charged and never runs out.
What shows at reception after a year, not in the brochure.
| At reception | Label printer | E-paper badge |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per visit | One label per visitor, every time — a running cost that tracks your visitor volume | None. The same badge is rewritten thousands of times |
| After the visit | The label is binned, or goes home on the jacket | The badge is returned to the dock, ready for the next visitor |
| The evacuation list | Knows when someone signed in. Does not know when they left, because nobody signs out | The dock registers the badge coming back — the visitor is cleared from the list automatically |
| The impression | A sticker | A badge carrying your logo, in black-and-white e-paper |
| Consumables | Label rolls, and a printer that needs cleaning, reloading and the occasional restart | None. No battery to replace or charge |
| When the desk is unstaffed | The visitor needs someone to print the label | The visitor checks in by QR code or kiosk and takes a badge from the dock |
| Requires | Printer, PC or tablet, drivers, labels | One docking station on a network cable and the badges you need |
It has its moments — fewer than you would think — and it is only honest to say which.
In some hygiene zones — food production, cleanrooms — nothing a previous visitor has worn may be handed out again. There a single-use label is right, and the badge is wrong however good it is.
Some operations want the guest to take their identification out with them. A label leaves with the jacket; a badge goes back in the dock.
It sounds like a reason, but it rarely is. Several of our customers had a label printer that did its job and switched anyway — because the sticker felt dated in a reception that otherwise was not. If it works, the question is not whether it works but what it says about you.
The badges are bought once. The software starts at 595 SEK a month, and a year costs ten months.
The printer is cheap to buy. The cost sits in the labels, which follow every visit, and in the time someone spends changing rolls, clearing jams and printing by hand while the visitor waits.
The starter kit with a docking station and five, ten or fifteen badges is a one-off. Nothing is added per visit after that. A badge rewritten every day for years costs less per visit than a label did in its first week.
Answer six questions about your entrance and get the kit and plan that fit — including when the cheapest answer is the right one. Build your kit or see prices in the shop.
A visitor management system — sometimes searched for as a "visiting system" — is software that records who visits a workplace, when they arrived and when they left. It replaces the sign-in book at reception and gives an evacuation list that is accurate in real time. Reonoma is a visitor management system where the badge is an e-paper display rewritten in a docking station rather than a label that is printed.
Yes. E-paper only needs power at the moment the image changes, and the badge draws that power from the docking station while it sits in it. In between, the display holds its image with no energy at all. There is therefore no battery in the badge, nothing to charge and nothing that can run out mid-visit.
The software — Outlook pre-registration, check-in by QR code or kiosk, host notifications and the evacuation list — works without badges. But it is the docking station that sees a badge come back and clears the visitor from the list, so without badges check-out becomes manual. Most start with a small starter kit and leave the printer in place until it is no longer needed.
Count the visitors you have inside at the same time on an ordinary day, plus a few spare. A badge is back in the dock as soon as the visit ends, so the number of simultaneous guests is what matters — not the number per month. Starter kits come with five, ten or fifteen badges, and more can be added singly or in packs. That goes for events too: we handle check-in ourselves at an event with 150 guests, so larger occasions work with badges as well.
We are happy to show how the dock rewrites a badge in three seconds — at your site or over video.